[photo courtesy of dollabill and Thom – more here]

The Mountain Goats show on Friday night was a fan’s dream but a taper’s nightmare. John Darnielle entertained the crowd with much banter, off-microphone songs, and accepted a series of obscure requests from the diehards. While the highlight of the show for many of those in attendance was the infrequently played “Ontario”, we were particularly moved by the story lead-in and the version of the beautiful “From TG&Y”, and John’s proclaimed first public piano performance (“1 John 4:16”) since childhood.

The Concert Hall at The Society for Ethical Culture is a beautiful and classic old theatre, but it sits in a residential neighborhood and the volume of the show is purposefully limited. Additionally, the high ceilings create reverberations that are particularly noticeable in an acoustic performance. The difficulties of the venue were magnified by a series of technical problems and John’s penchant to play several songs completely unamplified.

This was the maiden voyage of our new Edirol R-44, a high resolution four-track recorder (professionally upgraded for concert recording). We used our four best microphones in a configuration that decreased the echo in the venue. Due to the many issues in the capture of this show, the post-production for this recording was a major undertaking. We believe that we have maximized the sound quality of this difficult recording to create a fine listening experience for our readers. Enjoy!

The John Vanderslice [JV] recording was also recorded and will be posted in the next few days.

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

The Mountain Goats
2009-03-27
The Music Hall at The Society for Ethical Culture
New York, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail Center

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (massive level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-03-31

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:25:02]
01 [introduction]
02 1 John 4:16
03 Woke Up New
04 [technical problems]
05 Song For Tura Satana
06 Cobscook Bay
07 Going to Lebanon
08 Un Rêve Plus Long Que la Nuit
09 Going To Kansas
10 The Last Limit of Bhakti
11 You or Your Memory
12 Going to Queens
13 [banter]
14 From TG&Y
15 Dance Music
16 [banter]
17 The Day The Aliens Came (or: Hawaiian Feeling)
18 Ontario
19 So Desperate
20 Color in Your Cheeks
21 Sign of the Crow 2
22 Steps Columns Pillars [JV]
23 [banter]
24 Surrounded [JV]
25 See America Right [JV]
26 No Children
27 [encore break]
28 The Sign (Ace of Base)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Mountain Goats official releases from their website.

[photo courtesy of jen ballera]

Crystal Stilts released a new 7″ this week “Love Is A Wave” which caused on odd occurrence at nyctaper — a renewed interest in our December recording of Crystal Stilts at Bowery which contains the only recorded live version of the song. At Music Hall a couple of weeks ago, acidjack was there to capture the second live version of the song along with a complete Crystal Stilts headliner set. This concert was significantly longer than the December set and included two fairly obscure covers of The Gun Club and a standard Velvet Underground cover at the closer.

Our correspondent recorded from the same location as the Women and Blank Dogs recordings from this night. We can hear that the band had some issues with the mix, and perhaps because of the heavy use of reverb, the house mix is somewhat muddy. Overall, though this is a fine listen to the longest live recording of this excellent band to date. Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

Crystal Stilts
2009-03-14
The Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Center
30 Feet from Stage

SP-CMC-8 (Audio Technica U853 Cardiod Capsules)> SP-SB-8 > Edirol R-09HR > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample, slight EQ) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded by acidjack
Produced by nyctaper
2009-03-25

Setlist:
[Total Time 50:48]
01 Through The Floor
02 The Dazzled
03 Mother Of Earth (Gun Club)
04 Crippled Croon
05 Prismatic Room
06 SinKing
07 [technical problems]
08 Seeds
09 Converging in the Quiet
10 Sugar Baby
11 For The Love Of Ivy (Gun Club)
12 Love is a Wave
13 [encore break]
14 The City in the Sea
15 Temptation Inside Your Heart (Velvets)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Crystal Stilts, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their latest album Alight of Night from links at their MySpace page, including at Insound [here] and purchase their new single “Love Is a Wave” at InSound [here].

[vintage Plan photo courtesy of Chris]

Travis Morrison, the former leader of the Dismemberment Plan, played a show at Bell House last weekend and we were not there to record. However, in tribute we offer this vintage Plan show from 1999, which was about half-way through the legendary band’s existence, but about a year before they “hit”. Dismemberment Plan were actually the opening band on this triple bill. The other acts on the bill were the both-now-also-defunct Promise Ring and Burning Airlines. After the breakup of both bands, members of the D Plan and Promise Ring would go on to form the short-lived Maritime. This short set features primarily material from Emergency & I, released a couple of months before this show took place, and which is the album that ultimately propelled the band to larger gigs and increased popularity. Emergency & I was selected as number 16 of Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of the 1990s. We have searched the archive and this may in fact be the earliest Dismemberment Plan recording in circulation.

The post of this recording was inspired one of our favorite music writers on the web, Soren deSelby-Bowen — formerly of the Well and currently of the excellent Parlando blog. After a lengthy serious illness, Soren returned to writing this week with a piece about the Dismemberment Plan.

The sound quality on this recording is really quite outstanding. This was recorded by xcrex with DPA 4061 miniature omnidirectional microphones and has an excellent soundstage. The volume of the band eliminates any crowd noise and provided a signal of great clarity. Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/DismembermentPlan1999-11-23.xcrex

Dismemberment Plan
1999-11-23
Knitting Factory
New York, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from FOB

Recording: DPA 4061s > SBM-M1 > Sony D-8 DAT Master
Transfer: DAT Master > Panasonic SV-3800 > digital coaxial > Audigy 2 ZS Platinum > 16bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (slight level boost, downsample 44.1) > CD Wave (tracking) > Flac Frontend  (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded by xcxre9
DAT Extraction and Post-Production by nyctaper 2009-03-23

Setlist:
[total time 31:59]
01 Do The Standing Still
02 Onward, Fat Girl
03 Girl O’Clock
04 Gyroscope
05 The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich
06 Spider in the Snow
07 A Life Of Possibilities
08 The City
09 What Do You Want Me To Say?

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT the members of The Dismemberment Plan. Although the band has been defunct for several years, visit the website and follow the members, and purchase the releases of Travis Morrison who has an active solo career [here].

[photo by Joe Perez courtesy of Impose Magazine]

One of our favorite concerts thus far this year was the February 6 show at Market Hotel featured on several posts at this site. Our Blank Dogs recording of that night was special for a couple of reasons — this was the first full band performance, and was also the first live recording of this elusive artist. While the band and nyctaper were ultimately pleased with the quality of the recording given the limitations of the sound system at the Market, we are all very fortunate that our correspondent acidjack captured a superior recording of Blank Dogs set at the Music Hall last week. Although still blanketed by heavy reverb, the Music Hall mix has much greater clarity and the vocals are more prominent. The show is very similar in structure to the Market set, but given that this is now a working band who has performed a number of sets in the last six weeks, the performers are clearly tighter together.

This recording was captured from the same location at the Women set and the sound is excellent as indicated above. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Blank Dogs
2009-03-14
The Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Center
30 Feet from Stage

SP-CMC-8 (Audio Technica U853 Cardiod Capsules)> SP-SB-8 > Edirol R-09HR > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded by acidjack
Produced by nyctaper
2009-03-21

Setlist:
[Total Time 29:52]
01 Two Months
02 Setting Fire To Your House
03 I’m Alright
04 Leaving The Light On
05 No Compass
06 Red World
07 Before The Hours
08 Slow Room
09 Y.M.S.
10 Ants
11 Crystal Ladies

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Blank Dogs, visit their/his MySpace page, and purchase their/his many releases. The releases are scattered among many labels and quite a few are out of print. Here are a series of links to places where Blank Dogs releases may be purchased: Woodsist Records, Freedom School Records, Sacred Bones Records, Daggerman Records, Seven Ten Twelve, Sweet Rot Records, Troubleman Records.

[photo credit]

We love these “small world” moments. I had met Daniel Hart of The Physics of Meaning before, although when I enjoyed their impressive set two weeks ago at Union Hall, I did not realize the connection. When we recorded John Vanderslice about a year ago, John spent much of the night praising “Daniel” from his band, who we now know is the talented Daniel Hart. The Physics of Meaning is a quartet that relies heavily on Daniel’s violin (classically trained), his intimate baritone, and the band’s genre-eluding melodic songwriting. The band is has toured extensively in support of their second and latest CD Snake Charmer and Destiny at the Stroke of Midnight, but the Union Hall setlist also included two new solid numbers.

We recorded this set from the same location as The Antlers recording, and the sound quality of this set is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/PhysicsOfMeaning2009-03-05.nyctaper

The Physics of Meaning
2009-03-05
Union Hall
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Upfront
15 Feet Center – Microphones on Ceiling Beam

DPA 4021s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge 8.0 (level adjustments, downsample 16/44) > CD Wave > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-03-12

Setlist:
[total time 32::26]
01 In Dreams We Discover Ourselves
02 Resurrection and Crucifixion
03 Bigger Cities Thicker Doors
04 [banter]
05 Song For a Wishing Well
06 Oregon My Only True Friend
07 Accidental Lives
08 Black Licorice

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Physics of Meaning, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their newest CD from the Trekky Records Online Store [HERE].

[photo by blurasis]

Women were one of the best bands we saw during CMJ, so obviously we were excited upon their return to NYC. Unfortunately, I could not go that night, so the best new development at this site — the nyctaper correspondent — has let me experience the show. Women have toured extensively throughout the US and Europe since CMJ and the live performance is now tighter and more aggressive than the three times we saw them in October. There were also several excellent new songs performed at Music Hall which bodes well for albums beyond their outstanding debut album.

acidjack recorded this set from the floor in the sweet spot of this venue and the sound quality is outstanding. There is virtually no annoying crowd chatter, until one loud cellphone call occurs briefly during the penultimate song. Otherwise, we have vicariously lived this show through this excellent capture. Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/Women2009-03-14.acidjack

Women
2009-03-14
The Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Center
30 Feet from Stage

SP-CMC-8 (Audio Technica U853 Cardiod Capsules)> SP-SB-8 > Edirol R-09HR > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded by acidjack
Produced by nyctaper
2009-03-19

Setlist:
[Total Time 32:09]
01 Black Rice
02 Shaking Hand
03 Lawncare
04 Flashlights
05 [new song]
06 [new song]
07 Group Transport Hall
08 January 8

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Women, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their debut CD at the Flemish Eye Records (Canada) website [HERE] or the Jagjaguwar Records (US) Website [HERE]